We have exactly TWO MONTHS until the show. Last time I wrote, we were at 10 weeks and had just finished doing a photo shoot for new “teaser” posters. Well, two weeks is a lot of time for us behind the scenes and plenty has happened. First, here’s the final product of the photo shoot:
Would they catch your eye in a window or what?? ^_^ In addition to finalizing these bad boys, we’ve also finalized ALL of our poster designs – 3 standards, 2 special edition, and 3 teasers – and sent them to print. Bay Area folk, chances are you won’t see the fruits of these labors, but SLO folk better be ready for a poster-plastering storm in about 3 weeks!
OK, OK, I’ll stop going on and on about the posters. But before I tell you what happened while I was at PAX this year, allow me to highlight some of the fantastic projection artwork coming from Dan Howard:
So. PAX. For those who don’t know, I’m referring to Penny Arcade Expo. It’s a HUGE annual three-day gaming convention in Seattle, Washington by the Penny Arcade guys. PAX has everything: board games, video games, PC games, concerts, panels, tournaments, special guests, exhibitors, demos, swag, cosplay, etc. It’s awesome.
This was the third time Chris and I traveled to Seattle for the con and the second time attending as Enforcers, the volunteer workforce. One of the most awesome aspects of PAX – at least for Hideo – is the chance to meet and network with cool people in the industry. I took that aspect to heart this year and guess who we met?? Shota Nakama, creator and artistic director of Video Game Orchestra (VGO); David Lloyd, president and founder, and Larry Oji, head submissions evaluator, of OverClocked ReMix; and Robert Khoo, Business Manager of Penny Arcade!!
These are some pretty cool guys. Shota and I swapped experiences of building our groups up from scratch while he and Chris exchanged arranging philosophies. I was pleasantly surprised by how similar Shota and I are; he has a year of experience on me, so I hope Hideo can follow VGO’s example and become wildly successful by the end of next year. 😉
I met David and Larry after attending their panel on video game music in the mainstream. I asked for their advice on event promotion during the panel Q&A. They said to start by giving a shout out of our website to the room (of 500+ video game music fans) and upon hearing the URL exclaimed (over the microphone to everyone) “We’ve heard of that – it looks really cool!”
If Hideo were to perform at PAX, Robert Khoo would be the guy that made it happen. We’d already connected via email, but Chris and I chanced upon him in person while lining up to see VGO’s concert and were able to chat briefly about what it would take to bring Hideo to the con. It is a balancing act between being something PAX-goers would want to see, being financially feasible, and having room in the packed PAX event schedule. So we need to work on our popularity! (Psst, have you liked us on Facebook and/or followed us on Twitter? What about all your friends, too??)
But all four had something in common: “Hideo looks really cool… but what is it, exactly?” And that is a tough question to answer adequately with anything other than “come see the show to find out.” We have some video on our YouTube channel, but nothing really representative of the full Hideo experience. So I’m trying something new: I’m offering to cover travel expenses for these guys to come to California for the November 5 show. There are plenty of details to iron out, but keep your fingers crossed!
And finally, some of you may be wondering about the new “buy tickets” button the landing page. Yes, tickets are on sale! I haven’t officially announced it yet because I’m in the process of negotiating a deal with the hotels in the area whereby people traveling to see Hideo get a hefty discount and I want to be able to give you guys all the information at once. I hope to have everything wrapped up by the end of the week and will add a page to the site with all the info. In fact, I have some following up to do…
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